The international event will be held in the city of Harbin and will see robots take part in 16 different events.

..Professor Hong Rongbing, from the Harbin Institute of Technology, said the idea of the competition was to drive innovation and produce robots that are more flexible and helpful. (source – BBC – China plans for humanoid olympics )

How about the adult industry sponsor the first ‘miss world humanoid’ contest? I really hope that if China does overtake Japan in the fields of robotics and A.I., that they adopt a rather more liberated attitude towards sex. I think most of us would rather have the world’s first intelligent androids to look like Japanese idols rather than chinese shot putters or communist party chiefs. Thankfully, things do appear to be changing. Although porn is still illegal in China, there have been signs that middle-class urbanisation is bringing change to the bedrooms as well as the boardrooms. China now manufactures over 70% of the world’s sex toys.